Caroline sat next to her, watching Tawana curiously as she whispered a beautiful incantation and made various gestures in response to the pitch of her voice. Kylie watched her with a serious expression, then grunted when Tawana stopped.
"Flunk! Start over!!!"
"Woo ..."
Tavana sighed tiredly and helplessly, the truth was that what she was practicing now was not some faction of magic. It was a basic technique for the use of advanced magic. It was a practice spell created by Kylie herself to strengthen her connection with the Spirit of Magic. Originally, she had no intention of teaching it to others, but after all, those days in the Forest of the Undead had been very memorable for Kylie, and she had indeed done something unseemly to Tawana at that time, and although she had never had the heart to say she was sorry, taking the initiative to train Tawana in this way could be seen as an apology in disguise.
"Tawana, didn't I tell you? Consider the spirit of magic to be under your control! That's the only way to become a magician! A Magician is a person who uses the Spirit of Magic, and a Wizard is a person who employs the Spirit of Magic. There's a big difference between the two, and you have to learn to control it. Don't you have that kind of confidence? If you think you can master them, then you can!"
"Sister Kelly, this is too much to ask ..."
Tawana replied bitterly, she wasn't like Kylie and naturally wasn't able to do what she said she could.
(I think Ms. Kelly has a point, Tawana.)
"Sister Caroline ...?"
Caroline smiled weakly, then stood up.
(Confidence is important, one must have confidence in oneself, even blind confidence to do so.)
"Blind ... That's not good, is it?"
As a merchant's daughter, she has inherited her cautious nature perfectly.
(Tawana, do you know why Jared and I don't need to wear leather armor or anything like that?)
"Why?"
At the mention of the matter, Tawana was immediately interested. Initially, she had said several times that she would like to do her duty as an Enchantress and purchase equipment and weapons for the Guardians. Now it seemed that weapons were not needed, as Jared and Caroline had extremely powerful magical weapons of their own. But they never wore leather armor, just plain clothes that Tavana thought were defenseless.
"I thought it was strange too."
Kelly looked up and down Caroline's dress, although her behavior and dress looks like a perfect noble lady, but wear this kind of clothes even Kelly are clear, because too much attention to the body shape of the set off and action decorations and get very compact, although it looks beautiful, but completely unsuitable for large-scale action. Even Kelly such as magicians will choose to wear robes rather than that kind of noble dress, Caroline a warrior but so dressed up is very strange, she is not afraid of fighting too much action tear clothes?
(We are very confident in our strengths...)
Although Caroline didn't have the aggressive confidence of Kelly, her cool and collected tone seemed to announce something that was a matter of course.
(There is no opponent that can easily harm our bodies.) That's why leather armor and other protection is not needed at all, and if we get hurt, it will be an attack that we can't avoid even if we are wearing leather armor or other protective equipment. In that case, it doesn't matter whether we have defense or not.)
"But what if ..."
(There is no 10,000, and there is no what-if.)
Caroline interrupted Tawana gently.
（Tawana, you worry too much. Believe in yourself, in your own strength. If you don't believe in yourself and only think about the eventualities that may not happen for a hundred years, then you'll never be confident. It's good to be cautious, but worrying too much is just plain cowardice.)
"Caroline was right."
Jared came into the room and followed up on Caroline's words, sitting down on the couch in the process, looking as if he were about to be paralyzed with exhaustion.
"Finally, we found Kula."
His speech caused the crowd to change in color .
"Then Berukolin-sama she ..."
"Have traveled to the Forest of the Dead, though ..."
Jared paused for a moment, he wasn't sure what to say, but what followed was a little secret between him and Caroline, so he decided not to tell the others, the less they knew the better.
"In short, we can rest easy."
Although Jared had conveniently omitted the process, none of them were worried anymore. They knew that since they had been helped by Kura in the Forest of the Dead, Kura would surely help them again - what a strange argument.
A little surprised to notice Jared's tired and somewhat remorseful look, Caroline rolled those beautiful eyes and took over the conversation.
（So, what should we do now?)
"Until Kula returns, we have to wait. After that ..." Jared pondered, calculating how much truth he could tell Kura. Tawana knew only the most superficial and basic of their abilities, and Kylie hadn't questioned them, but she didn't think she knew much either. But Kura couldn't be treated like Tawana, and based on his conversation with Kura and his intuition, Jared had realized that Kura, though seemingly younger than Tawana, was not as intelligent as Tawana. The lies that worked for them didn't necessarily work for Kura - not caring about anything, not having an obsessive center of gravity, acting as she pleased. That's the type of person that's most difficult for Jared. She wasn't obsessive, she didn't immediately seize on the matter to imply conditions on Jared, she didn't even bargain as she should have. Kula seemed to be focused on the process and not interested in the outcome.
What a resemblance ...
"Let's talk about after we get back after we get back ."
Jared finished the second half of his sentence, and then, as if remembering something, took the dark red arrow out of his pocket.
"Kelly, what's this?"
"Is this ... magic arrow?"
Kelly took the arrow and studied it carefully before saying with some skepticism.
"Is it powerful?"
"It's powerful enough to completely destroy a small building like this if it hits its target, you really shouldn't have brought it into the room ... Where did you find it?"
I see. Portable rockets, to put it bluntly.
Instead of answering Kelly's question head on, Jared looked around for a moment, trying to get his memory to coincide with what he had seen yesterday as he turned slowly at an angle and proceeded to walk toward the doorway on the other side.
"Here?"
"That's my bedroom. What are you doing?"
Kelly saw something odd and hurriedly stepped in front of Jared. After all, it was a girl's bedroom, and it would be rude for a man like Jared to barge in.
"What about that room up on the left?"
"What's it to you?!"
Kelly's tone turned serious.
"Last night, someone tried to give this to you ... with a shot."
Jared pointed to the magical arrow in Kelly's hand, and Caroline couldn't help but giggle. But it was obvious that Kelly didn't hear Jared's words, or she didn't have time to think about something she shouldn't have thought about, and her face immediately turned white.
"Someone's trying to kill me?"
"That's right."
"Who is it?!"
"I wouldn't know about that."
Jared spread his hands helplessly .
"After all, it's not like I'm going to ask questions of a corpse."
"Where are the ... bodies?"
"I got rid of it. There's not even a scrap left."
Kylie did not speak again, she just carefully stroked the magic arrow, then carefully picked it up, put it on the desk, then stretched out her hands to the magic arrow, after whispering a few incantations, the original dark red arrow body slowly turned into a black color. Only then did Kylie let out a long breath and put the arrow away. Her brow was furrowed and her expression was serious.
"I didn't realize that there would be an assassin who could use magic arrows ... Could it be him? No, it's impossible for him to have such a powerful force. ..."
Jared had no intention of disturbing Kylie, while Tawana dutifully sat down and started looking through Kylie's spellbook again. So he winked at Caroline, who then nodded and followed him out of the room and into the quiet hallway.
(What's going on?)
"The trouble is more than that ..."
Jared looks serious.
"Kura seemed to sense the power you emitted that time."
(That time ...?)
Although for Kura, it was something that just happened yesterday, for Caroline, it was a memory of the past. So she froze for a moment before reacting.
(You mean ...)
"According to Kura, she sensed the energy of the Forest of the Dead. I've promised ... to tell her what's going on. Don't underestimate her, Caroline. Even though Kura seems like a little girl, she's always struck me as a tricky girl, and the lies that worked on Kylie and Tawana may not work on her. So I'm going to say ... you know what I mean."
(...)
Caroline is silent.
"If you don't agree, then it's fine for us to keep lying to her. But honestly, the consequences of that are beyond my imagination."
（Even if we told her, wouldn't it have the same unimaginable consequences?)
Caroline dropped her eyes and looked down at the ground with some uneasiness. She had never said "that" to anyone other than Jared. It made Caroline very nervous, after all, it was the biggest secret for both her and Jared.
"... So I wanted to ask your opinion ..."
(Jared?)
"Huh?"
Before Jared knew it, Caroline was in his arms.
（"If the same thing happens again, will you still protect me?)
"Sure."
Jared wrapped his arms lightly around the small, soft body, feeling Caroline's unease.
Their secret.
That's the last thing anyone should know, the ultimate secret.
Once exposed ...
"You don't have to worry, Caroline."
"So, can you tell Kula now?"
The sudden sound of a slothful voice startled the two men, who hastily separated, and then soon realized that Kula was standing at the sill of the window at the end of the corridor, still in the same half-asleep state, watching Jared and Caroline.